This Edina doctor isn’t dead, no matter what UnitedHealth told you

An Edina ophthalmologist had to quickly resurrect his business this week after UnitedHealthcare (UHC) incorrectly told some of his patients he was dead.

Dr. Richard Johnston’s clinic in Edina started fielding calls last week from anxious patients who received the mistaken news in letters from their health insurer.

“We know that the relationship between you and your provider is a very important one,” a letter from UHC to one patient stated. “Please know that we are here to help you through this change.”

The premature announcement of Johnston’s death led to a few laughs around the office of Edina Retina Consultants, which Johnston founded, but also heartache and hassles. Some patients already were nervous about procedures to correct vision problems, and this shocking letter didn’t help them feel confident, he said.

“I don’t think its a funny, ha-ha thing at all. It’s created some huge problems,” said Johnston, whose office received more than 60 calls in the past week about the death notice. The doctor said he didn’t know the total number of patients who received the notice.

UHC was already removing Johnson from its network, so the clinic had to correct that error to continue getting paid from the nation’s largest health insurance company. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota and HealthPartners had also been mistakenly notified of the death and were in the process of canceling their network contracts with him as well, the doctor said.

No procedures have been cancelled mistakenly as a result, but the clinic has been reaching out in advance and notifying patients of Johnston’s non-dead status so they don’t reschedule elsewhere.

UHC apologized in a written statement for “an internal error which led to a small number of erroneous letters being sent to some members.” The statement added that the insurer was reaching out to those members, and had “updated our processes to help prevent this type of error from occurring in the future.”

A spokesperson declined to specify the exact cause of the error or explain why UHC notifies members of doctor deaths in the first place.

Johnston grew up in Toronto and earned his medical degree there before his career eventually steered him to the University of Minnesota, and then private practice in Edina.

An obstetrician by the same name died Feb. 5 in Orillia, a Canadian town 100 miles north of Toronto. It’s unclear whether that had anything to do with the mix-up.

©2026 The Minnesota Star Tribune. Visit startribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC